I dislike talk about 'rights' for reasons I've mentioned here oh-so-many-times before. If a child has a 'right' to sex, where does this right come from, who confers it, and who guarantees it? A brutally honest answer would be that a child does not have a 'right' to have sex, unless the law of the state he lives in confers that right upon him. But if you were to ask "can loving and mutual sexual relationships between boys, or between boys and men, potentially - at least in principle - be a good thing?" then the answer I would give would be an emphatic 'yes'. I do believe such relationships can be a moral good, even if they are seldom acceptable in the current climate. There's no need to introduce talk about 'rights' into the conversation - I'd rather talk about relationships. Love is a great good, but it is always a gift, and nobody can claim a 'right' to it. |